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And he said the council was asking the Government to help play for the measures, although the authority would press even if it had to pay the entire £31 million itself.

The aftermath of the fire at Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, London

Birmingham MP Jack Dromey (Lab Erdington ) asked for cash in the House of Commons, telling Ministers: “There are 10,000 households in 213 tower blocks in Birmingham where rightly anxious tenants want action. Birmingham City Council has pledged that it will retrofit sprinklers to all those blocks.

“That will cost £31 million, but the council is suffering the biggest cuts in local government history and therefore urgently needs Government support.”

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He asked Mr Javid: “May I therefore ask for a straight yes-or-no answer? Will the Secretary of State guarantee that Birmingham City Council can go ahead and carry out that work, and that it will be refunded in full?”

Mr Javid, the MP for Bromsgrove, told told him: “Birmingham City Council, like every other council, has a legal responsibility to its social tenants, so it should do whatever it believes is necessary.

“As I have said before, if there is an issue with funding for necessary works, we will provide the support.”

Birmingham City Council is in the process of testing the cladding used on its tower blocks to see if they are a fir risk.

The authority has previously stated that none of the buildings use the same cladding as that thought to have contributed to the Grenfell blaze.